‘Democracy Works If We Have Bipartisan Support’: Richard Blumenthal Champions Kids Online Safety Act

2 months ago

During a press briefing on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke about
the Kids Online Safety Act.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Senator Schumer, for your leadership on the health tax credit issue, but most importantly

00:10for today, thank you for giving us a vote and for your strong and passionate advocacy

00:20in giving kids and parents back control over their online lives.

00:28What took so long?

00:30Opposition from Big Tech.

00:33We have broken the thread that Big Tech has on this process.

00:39This vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan, as was co-sponsorship of the bill.

00:45At the end of the process, three-quarters of the Senate, evenly divided Republican and

00:52Democrat, co-sponsored the Kids Online Safety Act.

00:57Democracy works if we have bipartisan support.

01:04And finally, I want to add my thanks to the parents and young people who were the main

01:13advocates here, the most effective advocates for this bill.

01:18I'm hopeful that in the next four weeks, they're going to continue this fight for

01:24jobs and convince our House colleagues that there is an urgency here that is unquestionable

01:31and undeniable.

01:33We need to pass this measure when kids go back to school and our congressional colleagues

01:39come back to the board.

01:41I know that House leadership is very interested, and many in the House have expressed strong

01:48support for this bill.

01:51I'm hopeful that we'll have the same kind of overwhelming bipartisan support in the

01:55House as we did in the Senate.

01:58But overall, it is a historic, monumental day.

02:04The public interest has prevailed.

02:06The Big Tech business model here, more kids' eyes and eyeballs for longer periods of time,

02:15more advertising dollars, more revenues and profits.

02:19That's a business model that has to be abandoned after the kids are on life safety

02:25advice.

02:26We have given young people and parents the tools and safeguards to disconnect from those

02:31addictive features and from the black box algorithms that drive content.

02:37We have bullying, eating disorders, self-harm, sexual, sex exploitation, autopositive on

02:47social media.

02:49But the bad stuff, it's really scary and violent.

02:55So thank you to parents and kids for counting on me.

‘Democracy Works If We Have Bipartisan Support’: Richard Blumenthal Champions Kids Online Safety Act

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